Guide
Hello there, and welcome to the Clone Army, a Star Wars based Roleplaying group for any fan of the franchise or anyone who simply wants to Roleplay. If you are reading this, chances are you're either new to the group and/or new to Roleplaying in general, so let me be the first to welcome you and hope that by the end of this little guide, you're as eager as I am to get stuck in and have some fun. For those of you who have never Roleplayed before, I shall go into the basics for you, for those who are familiar with Roleplaying, you may want to skip this, however if you are used to stat/D+D based Roleplays, you may still want to check out the basics here, as The Clone Army is a statless, non DM Roleplay. All conflicts are resolved based upon Roleplayer actions and Opponent reactions. Roleplaying Character Let us begin with the very basics, people generally Roleplay as a Persona or a character, engaging in character interactions and dialogue with other Roleplayers' Personas, interactions can be anything from simply waving the characters hand in greeting to engaging in a climactic lightsaber duel. It's a great way to encourage the creative sides of our minds, improve our reading and writing skills, as well as a nice way of chilling out, and indulging in your own fantasy or escape. Since this is a Star Wars based Roleplay, you have a meaty amount of races, appearances, weapons and backgrounds to choose from, the only limits when creating your own character is your imagination, but if you feel like browsing a good wiki to find out what you want your character to be modeled as, regarding points such as homeworld, weapons and race or just fancy looking up a cool character avatar, you'll want to visit Wookiepedia, the wikipedia for Star Wars. As with a franchise such as Star Wars, there are a lot of official, canonical characters in the universe, you can see some of them upon our banner, you may also notice some players Roleplaying as notable characters such as Anakin Skywalker or Yoda, put quite simply, if no one else has claimed the character, feel free to pick him/her/it as your character, I myself enjoyed roleplaying as the infamous Darth Malak from Knights of The Old Republic. The benefits of an official character is that they are pretty much ready to go into the roleplaying the moment you don their avatar and list their information as your character profile, a word to the wise though, it is recommended that you spend a little time reading up on your chosen character, allowing you to get an idea as to how they would act, speak, and fight. Obviously there will be force users knocking around, some able to slice and dice you with a lightsaber as easily as they would grate cheese, others capable of causing a giant storm with the power of the force, now with official characters, they already have abilities, weapons and powers listed, if you are roleplaying as an official character, understand that you can't perform powers or use certain weapons they aren't listed with, so no Yoda cannot play with Darth Maul's doublesaber and no he cannot throttle Captain Needa with force choke. With a custom character, things become a bit more open, but a lot more complex, you can technically pick any force alignment you want and have access to all the powers under said alignment, but if you have trawled through the force articles on Wookiepedia, you may have noticed that some powers and abilities are, well, powerful. In order to keep the Roleplay balanced and fair, keeping the force powers to a fair level and not having a ludicrous amount of them is strongly advised, however, there's nothing wrong with a bit of progression over time, get into a couple of battles and there's nothing wrong with your force user eventually reaching a higher level of a force power, just keep it fair, Luke Skywalker did not start flipping around and firing mountainous blasts of force energy after a couple of days on Dagobah, nor should you. Non Player Character's or NPCs are minor characters that can be invented by any Roleplayer, it is also possible within a faction to control official characters as subordinates or even superiors under your main character's control or associated with them. Since main character's are represented by your very account appearance, name and avatar for example, usually it is fairly easy to tell when a RolePlayer is using an NPC, namely because it is not the character whose name they use. A good example being a Roleplayer who's main character is listed as General Grievous, Roleplaying as Count Dooku. For new Roleplayers, it is generally recommended that you settle with your main character and get used to Roleplaying with them before creating or controlling NPCs. Roleplaying with Others Now then, interactions! A nice straightforward part, simply any action on your character's behalf is controlled by you, in order to show this is happening, most Roleplayers place asterisks around the action to allow people to see clearly what your character is doing, as well as keeping dialogue seperate, here's a simple example. *Han waves at Luke* : Han: "Hello there!" There we go! we have an action and a piece of dialogue, though remember to include the name of any Persona you may be addressing or interacting with. Generally speaking, Roleplayers indicate when they are talking in character by using their name, not all do, but sometimes in a Roleplaying situation, you can make it clear you are talking Out Of Character by say using brackets: (This is me saying hello! Not Mr Smith!) With interactions, you are free to describe the scenario you are in if appropriate, such as standing on top of a stool or sitting in a chair, generally with interactions, the more vividly you describe what your character looks like, is doing or how he/she/it may be reacting, the more detail you're putting in and hence the more fun it is when another Roleplayer does the same. Like this. *Han is sitting in a comfortable looking chair, a smile upon his face as he waves at Luke* : Han: Nice to see you Luke, how are you? *Luke strides over, a beaming smile across his visage as he replies* : Luke: I am postively fine Han, thank you! Combat And now we come to the combat aspect of interactions, while usually combat is a straightforward duel between two characters, this Roleplay offers the opportunity for huge scale pitched battles, group duels and firefights. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Combat on a personal level can usually be a mix of melee, ranged and force fights, on this level, it is a relatively easy and simple affair to give an attack. *Luke uses force push* Easy huh? Well, to an extent, as your opponent can conjure many ways to avoid, counter attack or outright block your attack. *Vader blocks with the force, then uses force choke* To keep combat evolving and fun, its always good to add some flair and detail rather than flat basic actions like above, also repeating your moves over and over again can be rather tiresome. Lets make this a little more fun by adding some reactions and better wording. *Luke thrusts his palm forward, sending a powerful push at Vader* *Vader flies back and slams into a wall with a grunt of pain, he falls and rises to his feet, Vader then clenches his fist, lifting Luke up in a choking grip* There you go, much more drama and far more interesting to read, not all Roleplayers will be fighting but you can guarantee they enjoy a well written fight. Examples like above can be extended to all types of personal combat, you can just drop in guns, lightsabers, whatever weapon suits your fancy. You may be surprised by your opponent's choice of weaponry or moves. Now with combat there are obviously a few rules that come into play, the first and foremost rule is thus; no character or important NPC controlled by an opponent can be killed or mortally wounded unless that Roleplayer allows it to happen. Which is why during a fight, it is not advisable that you deem an Opponent's reaction for them, unless the situation is well set up and reasonably executed, it is generally considered poor Roleplaying, but adding in pain response for the sake of detail is fine. *Anakin stabs his lightsaber into Ahsoka Tano's heart, killing her* : Or *Anakin swipes his blade at Ahsoka, gashing her deeply in the stomach. Causing a lot of agony.* Much as I wish I could kill Ahsoka Tano, that simply isn't fair on the other player, the second is less unfair, but can still cause problems with the Opponent, many Roleplayers don't like it when you determine the injury, as it hampers how they can respond with their character and breaks the flow of the fight. Try something like this instead, such as making your aiming or intentions clear: *Anakin slashes at Ahsoka, attempting to slice her in half.* Now you are leaving up a nice opportunity for an Opponent to respond, obviously no two responses will be the same in a fight, so Roleplay fights an be highly progressive with many twists and surprising turns, so you may end up with a response like this: *Anakin leaps back, but the blade still leaves a gash in her stomach, causing her to gasp in pain.* : Or *Ahsoka leaps over the slash and kicks Anakin in the face.* Another big No No, is having an invincible, overpowered character who cannot be beaten or with each action, blocks or defeats 100% of the Opponent's moves all the time. Wanting to win is understandable, but always remember if your character is precious and you don't want to lose that character, you don't have to die or take a mortal injury, if the Opponent is shaping up to be a vicious fighter, then rather than having them run around in circles trying to hit your untouchable god, which is extremely frustrating and childish, either think about mixing up your moves and tactics or retreat. God Modding, as it's called, is considered inexcusable by Roleplayers. Group duels and Pitched battles have similar sets of rules, but obviously depending on the scenario, it can be with thousands of troops and tanks or hundreds of space fighters and capital ships. Stick with the basic formula and you'll be able to adapt well. Factions So, finishing the basic aspects of our Roleplay, it's time to talk about factions, this is our equivalent of battlegroups or guilds within this Roleplay and the factions are fairly straightforward. At the time of writing, the current era is set within the Clone Wars and as can be seen on the main forum screen, the factions are of that era, we start at a canonical point in the timeline during the clone wars then deviate off into our own path, so don't be surprised if you happen to see the Republic and CIS chumming up and giving the pirates a good beating. All Faction Leaders can be marked out as their names are in blue, however there can be Admins who are Faction leaders also, though their names are in red, underneath it will detail their leadership status. In order to join a Faction of course, you must seek out the leader of the Faction and ask to join, usually the best place to do this is within the sub board of the respective faction you seek to join, just open up a topic, make sure you give it a clear, relevant title and wait for the Faction Leader to drop in, mind your Ps and Qs and you could be fighting at the side of your superior with pride. Understand that within the Faction you join, there are tech lists restricted to each Faction and respective planets under their control, upon joining and being assigned a position, you can expect your Leader to send you the relevant details, or if they do not, make sure to ask! It is important that you are familiar with your Faction's tech in order to get the most enjoyment out of it. *Each Faction has a general topic area and sub boards, these are usually planning boards, diplomacy boards, politics boards and news boards. *The planning boards are restricted to that Faction's members, being the place for hatching evil plots or detailing attacks with your peers, it is impossible to view that board without being a member, trying to do so is also not allowed. *The diplomacy boards are for when one member from another faction initiates diplomatic contact, to discuss private deals, alliances, trade, etc. *The politics boards are for the Roleplayers who enjoy the political aspects within a faction, and wish to bring to life Roleplaying with the respective Faction's government or leadership. *The News Boards are a great place to find out what's been going on with other factions, there you may find out about events you might not have realised were taking place. Within your Faction, you are generally expected to follow any commands your Leader gives you, be it a military campaign or playing the diplomat with another faction, failing to obey your Leader, betraying him/her or generally not doing your job well enough can result in being punished depending on the Faction Leader or even fired. So keep your locker clean if you want to, or not, and enjoy yourself. It is possible to create your own faction, however, only canonical factions are allowed, be prepared to put in a lot of tech, planet and unit research, which will need to be compiled into a list and submitted for approval, should everything be properly accounted for and the Admins consent, then congratulations, you now have a Faction, it will be your job to maintain it, recruit others and fight for your slice in the galaxy. It is recommended that a new player spends some time within another Faction in order to gain an understanding of how they function properly. Wiki If you've been wondering about the Wiki button on the menu, that leads to our own customised Roleplay Wiki, where members are free to upload their own characters or document their own little doings within the group, such as chronicling details of major battles they may have taken part in or writing up their characters history of actions in the group. It currently isn't very big, with more than a fair few, myself included, simply being too lazy or not finding the time to upload their own profiles, while there is no obligation to do so, you may find it worthwhile having a gander through the articles. Do take not some of the articles are related to characters and Factions used in previous eras. Regarding General Rules and Code of Conduct This Roleplaying group has suffered from troubles arising from arguments and conflicts within the past, as a result, rules are enforced with a system of warnings and increasing ban durations for repeat offences. Once a warning is served it will be marked on your profile, although you are free to appeal to the admins in the case of good behaviour afterwards in order to have the warning removed, depending on how serious it is. A full list of the rules can be found Here However I will summarise what is expected of you within this group. To be respectful and polite to other members within this group, posts consisting of racially or sexually offensive content will not be tolerated, as will any kind of offensive post containing slander or hateful speech. Which shall be punished harshly. Having a joke with someone is fine, but if that person finds your posting to be offensive and complains, the admins will be investigating. Treat your peers as you expect to be treated. Posting any kind of material or links to sexually explicit sites, or any kind of illegal/taboo content is strictly forbidden and will most likely result in a permanent ban, this group is open to Minors and will not permit any kind of extreme or explicit content. Understand that while debating is perfectly acceptable, arguments can occur, if such a thing happens, do not respond or fan the flames, if it is a difference in general opinion, then leave it at that and don't try forcing the issue. Arguments over tech or the rules in general are an unpleasant thing for everyone involved, instead of pulling things into a deeper rut, contact an Admin and wait for them to sort it out and correct any problems, each respective Admin is knowledgable within their own corners of tech lore and maintains the rules as fairly as possible. If at any time an Admin is attempting to reason with you in a fair manner or you have been found to have broken the rules or have been proven wrong in a tech debate, the absolute worst thing you can do is argue back against the Admin, not only are you painting a banhammer target on yourself, you are also causing a ballache for the Admin. So learn to take it on the head and face the music, if there is a serious issue involving you and the Admins, usually a topic will be opened for discussion, where you can appeal your own case and hear each Admin's thoughts before a verdict is reached. Running amok, complaining and giving everyone a dose of grief is more than likely going to result in a swift ban, and it won't be a light one either. Admins and Players Now the unpleasantries are dealt with, we can round off with a little brief on the Admins working behind the scenes. There are currently four Admins, they consist of: *Myself, Roleplaying as Nazca Atauk, I usually handle rule enforcement but do work on some of the Admin cases. *Palps, Roleplaying as Darth Sidious/Chancellor Palpatine, Palps works on most of the forum technical details and handles Tech disputes. *Vince, Roleplaying as Maximus Arralius, Vince sorts out rule enforcement and usually presides over Member applications/cases. *Matt, Roleplaying as Markus Kage, Matt does a bit of everything, but he most often drops in to mediate disputes and works on general Admin cases. Feel free to drop any of us a message at any time, we're more than happy to help out. One last thing, there's no need to feel out of place or nervous in the group, everyone is welcomed equally and encouraged to take part, don't be afraid to ask questions or speak up if you need help, most of our members have been Roleplaying for a considerable amount of time and are either Senior Roleplayers or Veterans according to how long they've been here. So most of our members are well practiced in the ways of Roleplaying. *A Senior Roleplayer has usually been with us from 1-2 years *A Veteran has been knocking around for 3-4 years *A Founder has been part of the original Dark Lords Group that existed long before the Clone Army, and was a part of the creation of this Roleplay. The two Founders are myself and Vince. Once again, a big welcome to the Clone Army Roleplay, we hope you enjoy yourself, meet some friendly people, and have an all round great Roleplaying experience. Have fun!